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Chuck Schumer mocks Karl Rove over GOP losses

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer ridiculed Karl Rove Thursday morning for the failure of his big-spending outside group American Crossroads to deliver both the Senate majority and the White House to Republicans.

“Karl Rove’s reputation is going to take a significant hit,” Schumer told a gathering of reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “If Crossroads was the business and Karl Rove was the CEO, he’d be fired for getting a poor return for his investors.”

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Schumer said he watched Rove on TV defend his super PAC and its affiliated organization, Crossroads GPS, by saying they helped decrease Obama’s margins in virtually every swing state. To which Schumer said sarcastically: “I’m sure he went to Sheldon Adelson and to Harold Simmons and said, ‘Put up these millions and [Obama will] win, but we’ll decrease his margin.’”

Schumer added: “I don’t think Crossroads is going to end up being as much of a player two years from now, as it was right now. I think his reputation has obviously taken a hit.”

Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for the group, fired back at Schumer.

“Schumer has the credibility of Dick Morris on campaign issues,” he said.

While Democrats padded their Senate majority and Obama won the White House, the GOP outside groups argue things would have been worse without super PACs, given that the president spent more than Romney did on the air and that Senate Democrats outraised their GOP opponents by millions.

At the breakfast, Schumer also said that the tea party is on the “decline” after several of its candidates lost congressional races or had to moderate to win reelection.

“Those tea party candidates who won, many of them ran away from the tea party platform,” Schumer said. “They are little bit chastened, the ones who’ve come back. I think we’re going to see a lot of the tea party things — ‘Let’s repeal Obamacare’ — play much less prominent.”

Readers' Comments (30)

All that Koch brothers, Adelson, Chamber of Commerce, et al, billion+ money did not buy the Republicans love. It is the demographics, stupid.

The GOP used all its dirty tricks: lying about their campaign and those of their opponents, cheated as best they could with voter supression efforts nationwide, and stole with a flood of GOP-packed SCOTUS' Citizens United unlimited, usually anonymous campaign funding only to see Romney/Ryan lose and to lose more seats in the Senate. There clearly were not enough angry, older, poorly educated, bigoted, white voters to carry the day.

Take heart, there were enough older white voters to keep the GOP wackos in the House and to reward them for their bad behavior in Congress that hurt rather than helped America. Keep up the obstructionism, the political terrorism and anarchism and the GOP with become extinct. The GOP wrote off Hispanics, blacks, women, gays, and the youth vote and they are not going to get them back so quickly, certainly not with the extremist right dominating the losing GOP party. The rich will fare well regardless of the election, it was the working class whose economic future was a stake. Now you know what liberals and Democrats felt like when GW Bush was re-elected in 2004 and he was far worse.

Poor karl's gonna have to hide from his big-money men. He lost over 400 million of other people's money and got nothing, zip, zilch, nada to show for it; didn't win one stinking race where he threw down at least $1mil.

I find it completely gratifying that this poor excuse of a man ended up such a loser - by all rights he should be in jail and with any luck, he'll now be drummed out of politics.

Funny Obama and Schumer have been a terrible return on the investment for Americans unless you are looking for free contraceptives and more food stamps and they have are still in their jobs.

Thank God, for people like Adelson and the Kochs for putting country first and investing in the last election. Can anyone imagine what would have happened if the Obama smear machine had been left unchecked without the outside groups?

Thats how election works, your man who has been running for over 6 years with the rich behind him should have got that 2% more votes than Obama, very simple.

Guess the White Horse prophesy/Holy Underwear didn't work!!! The real ALMIGHTY GOD must be behind Obama, a man from humble almost broken begining, able to ORGANISE right thinking people across the country to trounce 2 GOP priviledged boys in a row!!!...............Wow.....

Take that and smoke it......like a pipe......... John Sununu/D. Trump/Limbaugh/Priebus/Coulter!!!

I would have to agree that Obama puts our country first more than Romney. After all, Obama doesn't send his money into overseas bank accounts where it does absolutely nothing for this country. If that isn't un-American, I don't know what is.

The Tea Party will end up having to break away from the Republican Party as more and more Republicans start to distance themselves from the Tea Party. They will be a fringe along with the Libertarians. You have to wonder though which Republicans will go with the Tea Party and which ones will stay Republican. Paul Ryan Is more Tea Party than mainstream Republican with his beliefs so it will be intersting to see.

It is great fun seeing Karl Rove's professional reputation in the toilet. What will be even sweeter is when we see him sued or jailed for his misuse of dark money. California's AG is already looking into it. :-)

Rove and political pundits like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have pushed the party too far to the Right and Americans pushed back. They don't want to go there. If they continue on that path, Republicans will never win the Presidency again...